Traffic Lights at entrance to Kildare Train Station

NedNew

Has anybody been involved (like myself) in the chaos that has been caused by the placement of traffic lights on the Rathbride Bridge in Kildare Town (outside the entrance to the train station).

The bridge was recently resurfaced and a footpath was placed along it. This narrowed the road and the council decided to make it one-way at a time with traffic lights at either side.

The lights were switched on last Tuesday (8th of July) and since then traffic has been at a standstill on either side, having to wait almost 3 minutes (2 minutes 50 seconds to be exact) for a 10 second green phase. Traffic now backs up to the Railway Shop (300m away) on the town side and a similar distance on the other side.

Commuters cannot enter the train station as they are stuck in the line of traffic - people are missing their trains. Commuters cannot exit the train station either because of the line of traffic. This morning (Thursday) there was several reports of delays there on KFM (Kildare FM) Traffic Watch. Residents cannot cross the bridge to do their shopping in the town without a frustrating wait.

€400,000 of tax payers money was spent on this badly-thought out project. When I contacted Kildare County Council . theyclaimed that it is simply a phasing period and that "things will settle down after a week with some adjustments".

Apparently councillors voted in favour of this idea, none of whom live in the area. The residents were never consulted about the changes. No prior traffic survey seems to have been done (e.g. it would have made sense to place temporary traffic lights for a week to see the impact before proceeding).

aodh_rua

Just as an update - the lights were connected to their traffic management computers during the week, and the Council expected that this would improve things. I think the jury is still out on that though.

The broader communication issue is an important one. I did a leaflet drop to let people on the road know what was in store before the work began, and I wasn't at all surprised to find only a handful knew what was planned. The only official notice that work was to begin were ads tucked away at the back of the local papers.

If anyone wants to offer the Council feedback on this - you can get the roads section at (045) 980421 or roads@kildarecoco.ie.

djimi

Why is anyone suprised at this mayhem...? This is Kildare County Council we are talking about; act first, consider the consequences later... :rolleyes:

Onion11

Suggest you write or contact the Leader or Nationalist about it. total feckin disaster...as expected.

keefg

Onion11 wrote: »

total feckin disaster...as expected.

Yep, planned by monkeys.

If they were supposed to be thinking of the "safety" issue here then they have just created another one......I have seen dozens of vehicles jumping through the red lights on the bridge because they don't want to wait until the next sequence.

It's only a matter of time before there is a head on accident on that bridge or a serious case of road rage.

A better option would have been a footbridge for pedestrians (IMO )

BobbyBingo

Sorry to drag up an old thread but I'd love to know how this scheme is now working in practice ? The reason I ask is that Dun Laoire Rathdown are planning a similar scheme and they have referenced the Kildare scheme as a successful implementation of the shuttle system.

So, what are your thoughts 8 years on ? Did it work or not ?

Cheers
B

NedNew2

In my opinion it's very dangerous. I have seen people on bicycles who on proceeding forward on a green light are met by oncoming traffic as the sensors in the road fail to detect them passing.

Often traffic backs up on either side as the capacity has been reduced drastically. I have seen many, many times people going through on red lights, even cars being overtaken at the bridge in order to avoid the wait.

The sad thing about this is that no councillor is ever going to admit it's a dangerous and complete failure as it would make them look bad. DLR councillors will surely be in touch with their Kildare counterparts who'll profess it as a fantastic success.

I really do hope DLR see sense and don't repeat the same mistake.

tcif

NedNew2 wrote: »

I have seen many, many times people going through on red lights, even cars being overtaken at the bridge in order to avoid the wait.

+1 to this. Also it's not uncommon to lose an entire green sequence because so many cars have run the red from the other side so you could be held up for two changes of lights before getting across.

BobbyBingo

Cheers - that's brilliant feedback. I had thought of the red light jumpers but I hadn't considered the cyclists - that'd be a real issue. So on balance then, sounds like it hasn't worked out all that well then ? Any other issues ? Have the traffic lights broken down ? Does mayhem ensue ?

B

tcif

I only remember the lights breaking down once - it was early in the morning when I met that (7am-ish) so not too crazy at that hour but I would imagine as the day went on, until they were fixed, it got a bit mad all right. They tended to be on an unpredictable sequence too, which made timing a run to the train station a bit of a pain - you wouldn't want to be cutting it fine.

The other thing about the cyclists issue is that when they narrowed the bridge to make it one way they didn't leave enough room for cyclists and motorists to comfortably share the road so most cyclists use the footpath, which is not ideal for pedestrians because most don't dismount and the footpath is not really wide enough for that.